Sam Surnow
President, The Surnow Company
Birmingham, MI 48009
President of The Surnow Company
Phone (248) 865-3000
President of The Surnow Company
Property Types
Retail
Markets
Detroit
Bio
Sam began work at The Surnow Company as a janitor at age 12. His father, the company founder, Jeffrey Surnow, had made it clear no preferential treatment would be extended to him as he wanted his children to experience the satisfaction of earning their own success. Sam reveled in the challenge and as a teenage earned the right through his accomplishments to manage properties.
Sam went away to study accounting and finance at the University of Colorado, graduating with a Master’s Degree from the University’s Leeds School of Business. After graduation, he held the position of senior associate in the Alternative Investments Group of PricewaterhouseCoopers at its New York headquarters for four years. Despite his early promotion and the promise of a successful career on Wall Street, Sam felt the entrepreneurial pull back to Michigan when his brother, Max, started a business.
He returned to Michigan to help with the startup business and simultaneously started working in the accounting department of The Surnow Company. Soon after the employees voted him assistant controller. Sam succeeded his father as president of The Surnow Company in 2015.
Sam is also a managing member of Cooper Street Cookies, LLC, and is a member of the Birmingham Board of Directors and Business Development Committee. Sam is a C.P.A.
